Page 313 - Three Score Years & Ten
P. 313
“THREE SCORE YEARS AND TEN” MISSIONARY WORK IN CHINA
Amy Moore
That year we had typical Shaanxi weather, hot and dry in July and August and then a wet September.
I was so busy in July and August getting the boys ready for school, that I did not have time to think of
the heat, but when they and Percy had all left during the first week in September, and Dorothy and I
were left to an empty house with the rain pouring down outside day after day, our spirits sank to
somewhere below zero. She managed to spend some part of each day weeping for her ‘Fwankie’ and
her Daddy to come home. One day she looked up at the grey skies outside and said, “What Lord
Jesus pour out all that water for? Doesn’t he love us at all?”
Helen Dalton came back soon after Sadie did and they had gone together to Yan Xian. Helen was to
be in charge of the work there, but so that she would not be entirely without companionship, Percy had
asked Sadie to make it the base for her district work which she would be sharing with Bertha and Mrs.
Duan. The latter two had had a busy summer in the villages, so having Sadie back fresh from home
would be a help to them in the busy winter programme. One of the places they had been to in the
summer was Qu He, the place where Percy and Fred had gone to help with the tent mission in the
days before any of us were married. Now there was a good group of believers there who had built
their own building in which to worship, and six people had been baptised there during the summer.
Old Mr. Cawardine died that month. After Miss Cooke and we three girls had gone to live in Chenggu
he had gone back to England leaving his little ‘adopted’ Chinese girl Mei Shui in our care. By the time
he returned a year or so later I had moved to Yang Xian so did not see much of him. He left the CIM
and got work lecturing in the University of Chenggu and took Mei Shui to live with him. When the war
ended they moved up to Xi’an when the University moved, and had been there ever since. Now he
had died and, although he had retired from the CIM, it was to Percy the authorities were writing to find
out what we wanted to do about his burial and his effects, and also what was to happen to Mei Shui.
We had no idea of what the answers to any of these questions might be as he had never discussed
them with us. We only knew he had a son in England who would have to be informed.
Mary and Hubert Fisher were on their way back to Shaanxi and so was Frank White, so our
missionary personnel was beginning to build up again.
When Captain Moss cleared up the American Air Force things here, one thing he did leave us was a
radio run by batteries, and also some spare batteries for when we needed them and also an engine or
something to recharge them with. They were not a great success or else we were too much of
amateurs to know how to use them properly and we managed to burn them out! We had not been
able to use the radio for almost a year. Percy had made friends with the Postmaster in the city and
just recently had discovered that he had been brought up in a London Missionary Society School, and
that he was very keen on radio. He looked at ours and changed it over from batteries to electricity and
because our electricity varies so much, he fixed it so that we could control the amount of power we
used. It was a great success and we found we could get Melbourne Australia, BBC London, New Delhi
India as well as plenty of local stations and many foreign ones as well including San Francisco at
times. We did not have much time to listen to radio in the day time, but at night it was relaxing to be
able to listen to some good music or to get the world news as it was happening.
Percy took a trip on his bike in early November to visit Ankang and on his way back to call in on each
of the stations south of us. Jack had at last arrived back from Shanghai and said Frank had settled in
happily and seemed to enjoy everything. Letters from people in Shanghai said he was always in the
thick of everything that was going on. When their first term reports came, Alan’s was very good but
Raymond’s was just medium, and I felt that he was still suffering from his years in concentration camp
and all the broken school times he had had.
313
Amy Moore
That year we had typical Shaanxi weather, hot and dry in July and August and then a wet September.
I was so busy in July and August getting the boys ready for school, that I did not have time to think of
the heat, but when they and Percy had all left during the first week in September, and Dorothy and I
were left to an empty house with the rain pouring down outside day after day, our spirits sank to
somewhere below zero. She managed to spend some part of each day weeping for her ‘Fwankie’ and
her Daddy to come home. One day she looked up at the grey skies outside and said, “What Lord
Jesus pour out all that water for? Doesn’t he love us at all?”
Helen Dalton came back soon after Sadie did and they had gone together to Yan Xian. Helen was to
be in charge of the work there, but so that she would not be entirely without companionship, Percy had
asked Sadie to make it the base for her district work which she would be sharing with Bertha and Mrs.
Duan. The latter two had had a busy summer in the villages, so having Sadie back fresh from home
would be a help to them in the busy winter programme. One of the places they had been to in the
summer was Qu He, the place where Percy and Fred had gone to help with the tent mission in the
days before any of us were married. Now there was a good group of believers there who had built
their own building in which to worship, and six people had been baptised there during the summer.
Old Mr. Cawardine died that month. After Miss Cooke and we three girls had gone to live in Chenggu
he had gone back to England leaving his little ‘adopted’ Chinese girl Mei Shui in our care. By the time
he returned a year or so later I had moved to Yang Xian so did not see much of him. He left the CIM
and got work lecturing in the University of Chenggu and took Mei Shui to live with him. When the war
ended they moved up to Xi’an when the University moved, and had been there ever since. Now he
had died and, although he had retired from the CIM, it was to Percy the authorities were writing to find
out what we wanted to do about his burial and his effects, and also what was to happen to Mei Shui.
We had no idea of what the answers to any of these questions might be as he had never discussed
them with us. We only knew he had a son in England who would have to be informed.
Mary and Hubert Fisher were on their way back to Shaanxi and so was Frank White, so our
missionary personnel was beginning to build up again.
When Captain Moss cleared up the American Air Force things here, one thing he did leave us was a
radio run by batteries, and also some spare batteries for when we needed them and also an engine or
something to recharge them with. They were not a great success or else we were too much of
amateurs to know how to use them properly and we managed to burn them out! We had not been
able to use the radio for almost a year. Percy had made friends with the Postmaster in the city and
just recently had discovered that he had been brought up in a London Missionary Society School, and
that he was very keen on radio. He looked at ours and changed it over from batteries to electricity and
because our electricity varies so much, he fixed it so that we could control the amount of power we
used. It was a great success and we found we could get Melbourne Australia, BBC London, New Delhi
India as well as plenty of local stations and many foreign ones as well including San Francisco at
times. We did not have much time to listen to radio in the day time, but at night it was relaxing to be
able to listen to some good music or to get the world news as it was happening.
Percy took a trip on his bike in early November to visit Ankang and on his way back to call in on each
of the stations south of us. Jack had at last arrived back from Shanghai and said Frank had settled in
happily and seemed to enjoy everything. Letters from people in Shanghai said he was always in the
thick of everything that was going on. When their first term reports came, Alan’s was very good but
Raymond’s was just medium, and I felt that he was still suffering from his years in concentration camp
and all the broken school times he had had.
313
